From time to time, the constant velocity joints on front wheel drive vehicles must be serviced. This process requires the flexible boot to be slid from the constant velocity joint onto the drive shaft while the bearings located inside the joint are cleaned, lubricated or otherwise replaced. The boot comprises a resiliently flexible rubber material and protects the bearings from dirt and moisture. If the condition of the old boot is satisfactory it is replaced on the joint; however, if a new boot is required the outer constant velocity joint must be removed and a new boot is slid onto the drive shaft. The joint is replaced and the new boot is attached thereto. Another method of replacing the boot has been to stretch the boot by hand over a cone-shaped member slid over the outer constant velocity joint. For this application, it is required that the cone-shaped member be lubricated to facilitate the passage of the boot. By either method, replacing the boot has proved to be time consuming for the automobile technician and quite costly for the consumer since heretofore it has been impossible to swiftly replace a boot without either removing the outer constant velocity joint or engaging in a stretching of the boot by hand over the outer constant velocity joint.
Numerous patents have been granted for tools of one sort or another which engage and disengage constant velocity joint boots. U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,988 to Norrod discloses an apparatus which attaches a boot to a universal joint wherein the universal joint must first be removed before the boot is positioned on the drive shaft. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,869 to Pool a tool is described which attaches and detaches a boot from a universal joint. U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,994 Retigg et al. discloses an expanding device which enlarges the diameter of a boot such that it may be fitted on a propeller shaft.
While these devices perform well for their intended applications, the art does not provide a device for positioning a flexible constant velocity joint boot to the drive shaft of a front wheel drive vehicle while the outer constant velocity joint and drive shaft remain in place. Additionally, the art does not provide such a device which instantaneously positions a flexible boot on a shaft without need for lubricants or a stretching of the boot by hand.